


A Most Hopeful Beginning

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Conversations, Developing Relationship, F/M, Freedom, Happy Irene Adler, Happy Sherlock, Irene's Freedom, It's For a Case, Mentioned Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, Mycroft Being Mycroft, Mycroft's Quick Exit, POV Irene Adler, Past Irene Adler/Sherlock Holmes, Post-Episode AU: s04e03 The Final Problem, Suggestion Of Polyamory, Surprised Irene Adler, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 17:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17349479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: While she and Sherlock have been...something...in the past, she isn't sure whether she'll ever have his entire heart. But over tea, she finds she just might have a chance.





	A Most Hopeful Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dreamin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/gifts).



> This was requested by **Dreamin** from a sentence prompt ( _“More than money, this job is worth your freedom.”_ ) with Adlock as the ship. I haven't written in a while and for some reason this just came to me all at once.

“More than money, this job is worth your freedom.”

Irene looked at the two men in front of her. Mycroft looked almost sour at the prospect of no longer having her under his thumb; she had thought she had done a good enough job “dying” again after the incident in the Middle East, but she had not done as good a job as she had thought to hide from Sherlock when he took down Moriarty’s web and they got...reacquainted...and that lapse in judgment had found Mycroft finding her in Rome, offering a deal: gather secrets for him and the rest of the world stayed off her doorstep.

That had been a fair enough deal, until this. She looked at Sherlock and saw him nod a bit. Safety was one thing, _freedom_ had been elusive until now.

“I’ll do it.”

Mycroft nodded curtly towards her. “You and Sherlock can arrange the details amongst yourselves,” he said, almost turning on heel with an eagerness to leave the room. If he thought Sherlock and she were going to hit the sack without bothering to undress and engage in vigorous sexual activities…

Well, she wasn’t so sure about that. She knew Sherlock loved two women. The question was, who did he want to hurt least?

“Stay for tea?” she asked, motioning to the tea set she’d had out to indulge in a cuppa before her unexpected, but so far welcome, guests had arrived.

Sherlock nodded and sat across from her. She began to pour his tea (Darjeeling, no milk, two sugars) and then her own, preparing it in silence. It wasn’t often these days they were in the same room together, and she had known that since his last birthday, things had changed somewhat. She wondered how much, but they would get to that when the time came.

“Thank you,” he murmured when she passed him his cup and saucer before sitting down herself. “You were right to take advantage of his offer of freedom. If it could work with anyone else in the world, he would have found a way.”

“Well, I get him the best secrets,” she said with a smile. “And not even in my boudoir, most of the time.”

“Am I sharing you with anyone now?” he asked, his tone so quiet she bit off her reply of “Am I?” with a slightly wide eye and tilt of heat. Was he jealous? He never had been before, much like she had never been jealous of the other love in his life, the one he’d only recently admitted to, or so she had heard.

“No,” she said. “My bed has been empty for quite some time.” She had a sip of her tea. “Has yours?”

“Do you mean after Molly and I admitted how we felt?” She nodded. “Yes. My sister, I think, ruined things before they ever had a chance to develop between us, if that had been her intention. Molly loves me, and I love her, but there’s a wall there. Whether it will come down in time...I don’t know.”

She felt badly for him, an emotion she had never expected to feel in this situation. Jealousy, maybe some anger...but not a pang of sadness for the loss of something he never had the chance to experience. She reached over and grasped his hand in hers. “I know you may not believe me, but I truly am sorry. You both deserved better.”

“I suppose,” he said, squeezing her hand. “But at least we have people to make us happy in the meantime. We’ll grieve what could have been, I suppose, and see where we go from here.” After a moment he let his thumb glide along her knuckles. “John supposed I love you. Eurus reasoned out I was not the virgin my entire family supposed I was. And it was also rather freeing, to admit we had an attachment.” He paused in his actions. “Or could have, when this is all over, I suppose.”

“I think it could be quite interesting if there was,” Irene said. “But I don’t want to be your second choice, Sherlock. Though to be honest, polyamory is also an option if all parties are willing. But if not, if you want me, you want _me._ Not a substitute, not the last grasp at happiness.”

He let his thumb start to move again. “I think I can adhere to that,” he murmured before letting go of her hand and having some tea. “I just need to make sure we pull this mission of my brother’s off.”

“We?” she asked, a small smile on her face.

“Who else would I trust to keep you safe?” he asked a smile on his own, partially hidden behind his teacup. 

“No one, I would think,” she said, a pleasant warmth filling her. Truly, she didn’t believe she was his consolation prize. If she and Sherlock were to be something more than they’d been in the past, to have some sort of future together in an honest to goodness relationship, there would need to be ground rules and negotiations and all other sorts of matters to take of, but at this moment, she at least realized while he may love two women, he wanted to try for a future with _her_ and no one else and that, for once, left her feeling that perhaps one day she would have all of his heart.


End file.
